Qatar is moving ahead with its strategies to reduce road fatalities and complying with the World Health Organisation and UN sustainable development goals, Director General of Traffic Maj General Mohammed Saad al Kharji has said.
“Qatar has already implemented these recommendations, through a plan to reduce pedestrian mortality from 32 percent in 2017 to 17 percent in 2022, as well as adding the United Nations goals for sustainable development to the objectives of the National Traffic Safety Strategy and establishing the National Traffic Safety Office to enhance implementation requirements,” Kharji said during the Seventh Forum of the Coordinators for implementing National Road Safety Strategy in Doha on Tuesday.
Kharji, Second Deputy Chairman of the National Traffic Safety Committee, said Qatar is currently the leader in the field of “traffic safety management” in the Middle East and the third world countries, but it still faces a major challenge in reducing traffic fatalities.
Dr Mohammed bin Hamad al Thani, Director of the Public Health Department at the Ministry of Public Health, said the response time for emergency calls has been improved to five seconds or less.
The rate of arrival of ambulances to the accident site in Doha is seven minutes and outside Doha to eight minutes in 91 percent of cases. The department is working for the development and expansion of community initiatives to provide care for the patient in the home after receiving treatment. The healthcare professionals visited 60 percent of the people resting in the homes after leaving the hospital to assess the home environment and their health. The department participated in scientific conferences and international workshops.
Dr Ibrahim al Naimi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education and Head of the Task Force for following up the implementation of the strategy, said the ministry is taking steady steps towards achieving the objectives of the national traffic safety strategy.
Nearly 70 percent of the ministry’s tasks were completed within this strategic plan, he said. The operations included preparation of plans according to a study of current and future activities, spreading traffic safety culture through field visits by the ministry’s specialists to schools and meeting with the coordinators of traffic safety in public and private schools in addition to holding workshops.
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